Casino News

(Italy).- Abbiati Casino Equipment has entered into a collaboration with ICM Casino management, a Swedish company and a leading distributor of casino equipment to European countries. ICM Casino management will become a distributor of Abbiati Casino Equipment’s product line, such as security chips, plaques and jetons (all featuring RFID technology), American Roulette Wheels and Winning Number Displays, in Northern Europe.

Giorgio Abbiati, Abbiati’s CEO, said, “Working with ICM Casino management as a distributor helps to get our products into this very important market. We are sure the newly started collaboration will bring to our both companies favorable results and a long term partnership”.

Wolfram Dahlström, CEO of ICM Casino management, said, “We are really looking forward to working with Abbiati Casino Equipment and are excited to be able to offer their state-of-art products to our customers. We are sure the enhanced product line we offer will help to ensure that we remain a highly successful distributor in the Northern European countries.”

Recently, the Hippodrome Casino opened up in Leicester Square, with many hoping that it will be a roaring success. A different scandal is now rocking the Europe casino news scene however, as co founder and tycoon Jimmy Thomas has not been shy about complaining about current government tax policies with regards to a recent VAT bill.

However, it is not about the tax on building materials to create his casino, nor about the cost of getting a casino license, nor even about the tax he faces on his revenue that he is complaining about. No – Thomas is upset because he made a charity donation of more than two million pounds for much needed refurbishments to the ovarian cancer ward at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. The amount of tax he was asked to pay on this amount? A shocking £460,000 – and despite his reported friendship with and support of Conserative Prime Minister David Cameron, he has been rather vocal about the upset it has caused him and how eager he is to get it resolved. As he puts it, “He has taken £500,000 from me that should be going to a woman with ovarian cancer”.

This is an issue that seems to be haunting some lately, as they seem to exist in a black hole of legislation – people tend to see them as a negative influence in any community, and the charity work that they do is often overlooked. This follows a couple of huge surprise donations made in the Las Vegas area by casino mogul Steve Wynn recently to some poor and needy families, which were anonymous until press diggings unearthed their source. Many feel that this kind of donation should not see any further tax, while others see it as a perfect way for casinos to siphon off untaxed income in unscrupulous ways.

Thomas went on a long rant about the situation, saying to reporters, “The Treasury Minister says, ‘Oh, well, then I’ll have to do it for schools and everything else.’ I tell him: ‘Don’t you understand it? This is charity money being given to a hospital, not people spending money educating their children which they don’t have to spend.’

“You don’t have to send your kids to Eton – it’s your choice – you could send them to a damn good grammar school. This is charity money and you’ve already paid tax on it once before you give it to the VAT man.”

Chinese developers have been given the green light to buy land for a planned $4.2bn mega-resort and casino in far north Queensland.

The Foreign Investment Review Board has approved an application by Aquis to purchase 340 hectares of land for its development at Yorkeys Knob, near Cairns.

The Aquis Great Barrier Reef Resort would include nine luxury hotels, an 18-hole golf course, a 25,000-seat stadium and a cultural heritage centre. The chief executive of Aquis, Justin Fung, said the company would take full ownership of the land once plans for the project were approved and a casino licence secured.

The company signed a $269m takeover bid agreement last week with the Reef Casino Trust, which owns the Reef Hotel Casino in Cairns.

Aquis hopes a bid to extend the Reef Casino licence to include the mega-resort is successful.

As a back-up it has also applied for one of two new regional Queensland casino licences on offer by the state government. Locals have raised concerns the project will not withstand a cyclone, will increase problem gambling, may damage the Great Barrier Reef and could hurt the region’s nature-based tourism industry.

Those in favour of the resort say it will bring much-needed jobs to the region and boost tourism. Aquis’ owner, the Hong Kong-based billionaire Tony Fung, has said the resort would rival the great man-made structures seen in Dubai and Singapore and would attract big spenders from China.

Keno, which is one of the oldest and simplest casino games, is big business in Nevada.

Keno players select numbers, typically 1 to 80, then wait to see if those numbers are picked during the game.

But for casinos it can be an expensive game to operate, in terms of employees and square footage dedicated to keno.

Gaming Arts LLC thinks it has developed a solution.

The Las Vegas-based company has developed EZ Keno Kiosk, which allows players to process their own tickets. The kiosk has a bill acceptor, ticket printer, touch-screen display for play selection and a bar code reader to scan the ticket.

The EZ Keno Kiosk also offers more than 40 games, from traditional keno, a version of bingo, to a progressive game in which players with $1 bets could win $200,000 if they match nine numbers.

"We are marketing this kiosk to everyone," from small neighborhood casinos to resorts on the Strip, said John English, senior vice president, business development and public relations, with Gaming Arts.

The privately held gaming company declined to disclose development costs.

The EZ Keno Kiosk will undergo field tests at the Siena in Reno. The casino is owned by Gaming Arts parent company Colvin Gaming Group.

"The response to the kiosk has been amazing," English said. "We designed it to be easy to use, as well as an added convenience for the customer that takes up less space for the operator."

English said the EZ Keno Kiosk "was the first of its type to be developed in the U.S." He declined to speculate on when the Nevada Gaming Control Board will approve the EZ Keno Kiosk.

Colvin Gaming is more than keno kiosks and a boutique hotel in Reno. The company with offices in Las Vegas and Reno recently spun off a new subsidiary, Z4 Gaming LLC, which is developing a new online gaming platform that is scheduled for release during the fourth quarter.

A free-to-play gaming site will launch by the end of June, according to the company.

The Nevada Gaming Commission licensed Z4 Gaming as an interactive service provider in December. Colvin Gaming's plans call for the Siena to be the operator, Gaming Arts a service provider and Z4 Gaming the interactive content provider.

English said Z4's platform will be designed to deliver any game, to any device, in any legal jurisdiction worldwide. Z4 has developed nearly 100 games, including poker and a full suite of keno and bingo games.

"The Z4 Gaming platform along with the 100 new proprietary games will uniquely position (us) for the future," English said. "The scalability and robustness of its cloud-based platform is truly state-of-the-art and provides the infrastructure necessary for rapid expansion."

He said the time is right to launch Z4 Gaming as "states now realize the opportunities available through interactive gaming."

2012 is the year of innovations for Euro Games Technology. The company has broadened its extensive portfolio of products even more, by presenting new exciting products at the BeGeExpo in Sofia, Bulgaria. Once more, EGT proved its stable position among the top players in the casino industry in Bulgaria and exhibited their latest innovative products: Electronic Roulette VEGA-R8 + STORK Multiplayer Terminals.EGT’s Multiplayer Solutions scored a lot with the presentation of the Vega R8 Roulette in combination with the new STORK Multiplayer Terminals. The sophisticated Electronic Roulette supplies 8 comfortable player stations, with conveniently sized 22" wide-screen monitors. The elegant STORK Multiplayer Terminals, on the other hand, adds exciting dimensions to the gaming floor with its multifunctionality combined with high-tech features.EGT proudly presented its brand new software product – Multi-wheel playing. It enables simultaneous play on three wheels (linked in a system) whereas the player can lay bets in real time. The Vega R8 Electronic Roulette and the STORK Multiplayer Terminal can be linked to up to three roulette wheels simultaneously, comfortably displaying live video and statistics of each wheel on the individual monitors. Both products are compatible with EGT’s Roulette Center and the electronic and live Roulette Wheels by TCSJOHNHUXLEY and Cammegh, exhibited at the show especially for the presentation of the new system. The outstanding composition of the Vega R8 Electronic Roulette and the STORK Multiplayer Terminals with the new Multigame software makes it possible for the player to enjoy the multigame variety together with high class technology and comfort which guarantees a maximum entertainment and fun.

Premier Series MultigamesEGT announced its brand new selection of Multigame mixes from the Premier product line. Premier Multi-2 and Multi-3 feature 28 and respectively 33 exciting games, some of which are brand new. All software products from the Premier Series are run by the powerful Exciter II®, platform which enables brilliant graphics quality and high tech performance. Cat 4 Cash ® Multi-Level Progressive Jackpot System. EGT showcased one of the company’s highly evaluated products – the Cat 4 Cash ® Multi-Level Progressive Jackpot System. This is one of EGT latest products, which has already proven itself as an absolute success for EGT. The system features four levels of progressive Jackpot. An eye-catching jackpot panel attracts the players’ attention with a clear presentation of the jackpot levels and an entertaining animation shown on a high quality 40" LCD - TFT display. The stylish cabinets are exclusively designed for the player’s comfort with their 22" and 32" wide-screen LCD-TFT monitors. The visitors at EGT’s booth were captured by the new Cat 4 Cash Multigames run by the powerful Exciter II® platform.

United Mystery Jackpot SystemAnother brand new product showcased by EGT at the BeGeExpo was the United Mystery Jackpot System. This system proves to be a really valuable asset for every casino because of its multi-functionality. The United Mystery Jackpot System can be connected to more than 100 machines of ANY brand and features 3 levels of jackpot. (E-11.12.12).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Gaming Association (AGA) today released a comprehensive report showing that the economic impacts of the commercial casino industry spread throughout the entire U.S. economy in 2010. The report, “Beyond the Casino Floor: Economic Impacts of the Commercial Casino Industry,” is the first of its kind and offers new in-depth analysis of the gaming industry, including data on the effects of industry spending as well as industry supported and induced spending. The report shows the economic activity supported by the commercial casino industry is roughly equivalent to 1 percent of the $14.5 trillion U.S. gross domestic product in 2010.